Halloween Roadrunner
by Rob Graham
My summer adventure with the roadrunners nesting in our local cemetery continues well into the fall. This juvenile is the last roadrunner that appears to still be hanging out, and is getting tougher to locate. I found the roadrunner Halloween morning in a slightly unexpected location. After poking around in the dirt/grass for a bit, it suddenly started actively hunting these evergreens, darting around and through the trees, rattling its bill. I never saw it catch anything before it disappeared through the bushes and didn't come back out. Does anybody know how low the temps have to drop before a roadrunner is forced to migrate south? We haven't had a hard freeze yet, but temps are dropping close some nights and the days are in the 60s. 7D, ISO 400, 1/1000, f/8, partial crop
Comments
7 commentsI like the way you isolated the tail feathers with the bg shadow
Cool pose!
Not sure, but I don't think RR's migrate.... I think they are permenent residents wherever they reside.
Sandy
(Yay - SF Giants World Series Champs!)
Sandy, I had read that they didn't migrate. However, the adults apparently left in September, shortly after the chicks in their second nest fledged. Four out of the five juveniles have also left, with this being the lone remaining roadrunner. I'm in central Kansas, and presumably at the northern limit of the normal range for roadrunners. The roadrunner picked up a monarch off the ground the morning I took this photo, but there isn't much insect life left. Lots of sparrows, and I have heard of a roadrunner farther to the south who spent several winters hunting sparrows in a farm yard and thus survived the winters. I'll keep watching, and try to figure out where this bird goes when not in the cemetery or these bushes.
Carlos Escamilla
Laredo TX
May